Gulf Coast Bird Observatory | 299 Hwy 332 West, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566
 A Great GCBO Year - End of the Year Appeal
After a stormy year with Harvey last year, we finished rebuilding this spring and haven't looked back!  Staff have made great strides in the field and continued the quality avian research GCBO has become so well known for. All this success depends so much on your support, and we are forever grateful!    

Many of you have supported our programs and projects for many years. Thank you!  I send you this appeal at year’s end in hopes that you can support us once more. You truly make a huge difference! We are humbled by your support and belief in GCBO’s mission!   

You can support us by clicking this link to get the Appeal Letter: 

Or you can go directly to our Website Donation Page. Please make sure to select the Operations option from the "Donation To" drop-down menu
GCBO at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival
Last month GCBO participated in the RGVBF both with a booth and with tours led by our Executive Director, Martin Hagne. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with both local and out-of-state birders and to spread the word about GCBO's mission. Below are several photos of our time there:

More Great RV Hosts
GCBO's been fortunate to have had a stretch of fantastic RV volunteers. Our two latest, Greg and Carol, joined us in November and will be leaving in the first week of December. We have greatly appreciated their hard work and company and wish them well on their travels! We hope they'll return again soon!
GCBO Experience Auction
As this is the last enews before New Years, we just wanted to apologize again for the inconvenience our technical issues may have caused on last day bidding in our auction. As many of you know by now, we are looking into increasing our website hosting capacity so that we can handle high volume traffic in the future.

Many many thanks for all your support and patience! Here's to a bigger, smoother 2019 Experiences Auction!

Christmas Bird Counts
Christmas Bird Counts are right around the corner. It’s a wonderful way to get out in the field, see some birds, and help collect avian data . You can find all the counts across the world at the National Audubon website.
 
For Texas counts you can go HERE
 
There are three local Brazoria County counts we’d love help with. You can find more info and contacts at the above website.
 
San Bernard CBC  – Fri, Dec 14, 2018
Brazos Bend CBC -- Sat, Dec 15, 2018
Freeport CBC  – Sun, Dec 16, 2018
Brazoria Columbia Bottomlands CBC  – Sat, Jan 5, 2019
 
Bird Banding Saturday December 15th
Join us for our monthly bird banding session on December 15th from 8 am - noon right here on our beautiful grounds. We've had a several great banding months in a row and some beautiful weather recently. Come learn about the different species, the science behind bird banding, and then maybe hike a trail or visit our nature shop! We have the perfect gifts for nature lovers of all ages!
New Donation and Membership Platform Up and Running
We've revamped and completely updated our Membership and Donation pages on the GCBO website!
These new platforms should be much more streamlined and easier to use!
Please help support GCBO’s mission and join us in carrying out our bird research and education!
 
Check out how you can help, and what members receive:
Wish List
Your in-kind contributions help us tremendously by freeing up much needed funds for our research and projects. Thank you!!

Push Lawnmower 
If anyone has a push lawnmower in good working condition that they no longer need and can donate to help us upkeep the headquarter’s grounds and trails we would gladly take it off your hands! :-)  

Black Oil Sunflower Seed and Chicken Scratch
We feed year-round here at GCBO, and during migration at Quintana. We stock our GCBO feeders to help augment natural foods, and this also helps our monthly banding research project. 
 
1 Gallon Plastic Pots
We can use your used 1 gallon nursery plant pots for the Growery. We go through a lot of 1 gallon pots when potting up new plants. Let’s recycle them here. We’ll take one or a hundred! 

Fire Proof Storage Box:
We are in need of a metal fire proof storage cabinet to store flammable paints etc. in. 

 
From Our Flock to Yours:
Now when you shop at Kroger, you can support GCBO!
GCBO is a registered charity through Kroger's Community Rewards Program. This means that you can register your Kroger Plus Card online and select GCBO as the organization of your choice. Every time you use your Kroger Plus Card, Kroger will donate a portion back to GCBO! This is an easy way to support GCBO while you shop - your donations help us continue to protect birds and birding habitat around the Gulf Coast and beyond. To register your Plus Card, click here . Our charity number is #DN782.

Donate to GCBO!
Telephone:  979-480-0999  |  Email Us
All photographs are courtesy of GCBO staff unless otherwise noted.